A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Arriaga, Juan d'

ARRIAGA, Juan Crisostomo d', born at Bilbao 1808, a violinist and composer of great promise. When a mere child, without having learnt even the elements of harmony, he wrote a Spanish opera, and at the age of thirteen was sent to the Conservatoire at Paris to study the violin under Baillot and harmony under Fétis. In two years he became a learned contrapuntist, and wrote an 'Et vitam venturi' in eight parts, which Cherubini is said to have pronounced a masterpiece. (Fétis.) On his premature death, of decline, at Marseilles in 1826, this gifted artist left three quatuors for the violin (Paris, 1824)—compositions deserving to be better known—an overture, a symphony, and many other unpublished works.

[ M. C. C. ]